China to 'seriously' implement new North Korea sanctions

The new restrictions on North Korean coal were relatively easy for Beijing to approve.

Power outlined how Pyongyang has gotten around the sanctions: by diverting revenue from exports to fund research, trying to cover up business dealings overseas and looking for openings to smuggle illicit materials. It would also prohibit the export of statues by North Korea, also known as the Democratic People's Republic of Korea, DPRK.

"When we watch North Korean missile launches on television, we feel as if a brother in the family is wielding a gun, shooting in the air, while his children are screaming".

In what's likely to mark its final bout of nuclear diplomacy, the Obama administration secured unanimous passage Wednesday of a U.N. Security Council resolution meant to further choke North Korea's earnings in retaliation for developing nuclear weapons and ballistic missiles.

The resolution drawn by the nations require North Korea to "abandon all nuclear weapons and existing nuclear programs".

The sanctions are an "unequivocal message that the DPRK must cease all the provocative actions and comply fully with its global obligations", UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said.

"It sends an unequivocal message that (North Korea) must cease further provocative actions and comply fully with its worldwide obligations".

The council unanimously approved the sanctions resolution.

The resolution also zeroes in on the country's diplomatic missions, calling on United Nations member states to reduce the number of North Korean diplomatic staffers and limit the number of bank accounts the missions and their diplomats can open to one each.

And that is precisely what this resolution achieves. It was Pyongyang's fifth nuclear test. She said it "imposes unprecedented costs on the DPRK regime for defying this Council's demands".

The spokesperson also said that September's nuclear test was conducted due to both the North's perceived nuclear threat from the USA and existing sanctions leveled against the country.

The sanctions unveiled Wednesday target coal exports to China in particular, which have generated more than $1 billion in income for the regime annually.

Nearly all of North Korea's coal goes to China.

Although Beijing has traditionally protected Pyongyang diplomatically, believing that Kim Jong Un's regime is preferable to its collapse, it has grown frustrated by its neighbour's defiance. U.K. Ambassador Matthew Rycroft said last week that the Security Council has been negotiating since the September test.

The United States reaffirmed the Council's support for the Six Party Talks, calls for their resumption, reiterates its support for commitments made by the Six Parties, and reiterates the importance of maintaining peace and stability on the Korean Peninsula and in Northeast Asia. As per the latest sanctions over Pyongyang's nuclear programme, coal exports to China will have to be slashed by about 60 percent, dealing a huge blow to the reclusive regime.

It calls on United Nations states to reduce the number of staff at North Korea's foreign missions and requires countries to limit the number of bank accounts to one per North Korean diplomatic mission amid concerns that Pyongyang had used its diplomats and foreign missions to engage in illicit activities.

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